October 10, 2006
How Old Are Your Law Firm's Partners?
Ellen Freedman’s (with Freedman Consulting, Inc.) paper, Preparing to Say Goodbye To The Baby Boomers, is a wake-up call for midsized law firms.
She opens her six-page paper with this paragraph:
I didn’t want to scare anyone with a title which read “Baby Boomers Dropping Like Flies” because that has more serious connotations. But the reality is that the Boomer generation is slowly beginning to depart law firms; either through death, disability, early retirement, or beginning the process of scaling back. And the trend just beginning will accelerate sharply in the coming years.
If your firm is like many midsized law firms, your partners are clustered around the same 10- to 15-year age group, and more than half are probably on the high side of 55. Does the firm have the talent in place for the needed change of the guard? Do existing agreements provide for unfunded, back-breaking, continuing payments to retired partners that may lead to exodus from the firm or its dissolution?
It isn’t too late to deal with this demographic storm, but there isn’t much time left. Retirement, disability, and scaling back aren’t always planned. Planned on not, they come with an aging partner population. Never underestimate the likelihood that unexpected medical problems of the partner or within their family will force retirement earlier than expected.
Ellen Freedman’s comprehensive paper covers many of the issues that law firms address for long-term continuity. If her description of the baby boomer problem applies to your firm, you may want to also read my post dealing with law firm continuity and the dollars and cents for adding new partners and retiring existing partners.
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
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Filed under HR by Tom Collins